print3d

# /print3d — idea to a printable X2D part `print3d` below is the print3d command line. When you have the print3d MCP tools, use those of the same names instead: they return the plate preview and overlays as images, and the host can ask the user before each one that writes. A job's files live in the report's `job_dir`, written below as `jobs/<slug>`. ``` idea / photo / text → model.py (Blender) → mesh → DFM + printability │ ↑ + likeness to the photo spec.json └──────── advice: what to fix ───┘ │ slice → .3mf → user prints from Studio ``` Nothing here reaches the printer. The last step is a sentence handing the user a `.3mf`. Printing is theirs to do in Studio, with the plate in front of them. ## 1. Read the brief Size, text, colour, what the part has to do. Ask at most one question, and only when a missing number makes the part unprintable. **From a photo of an object:** scaffold (step 2) for the slug, then work through `references/from-photo.md` before writing the model. It turns the photo into a `spec.json` of measured, given and assumed dimensions, and adds the `likeness` check that compares the model with the photo. **To replace something sold in a shop** (a listing URL or a product name): also work through `references/from-listing.md`. The listing's stated dimensions scale its product photos, and the hand-off weighs the print against the price. **More than one part, more than one colour, or parts that fit together** (a box and lid, a case in halves, a name in a second colour, a pin in a hole): read `references/parts-and-fits.md` before writing the model. ## 2. Scaffold ```bash print3d make "<prompt>" ``` With no model yet this writes `jobs/<slug>/model.py` and stops, naming the path. Take the slug from that path. ## 3. Write the model Replace the scaffold's body with the real part. The contract: - Plain bpy. **1 Blender unit == 1 mm.** - `params` is in scope: `prompt`, `slug`, `text`, `intent`, `size_mm`, `color`, `material`, `dims` (name -> mm from `spec.json`) and `fit` (this printer's clearance per side for `press`, `snug`, `slide`, `free`). Size every mating feature from `params["fit"]`, never from a guessed number. - Several parts: model each where it sits when assembled and name it with `part(objects, name, color=, group=, rotate=, plate=, settings=)`; declare how two parts mate with `fit(a, b, kind)`. Without `part()` every mesh is joined into one part. - Leave the geometry as mesh objects. The harness joins them, removes doubles, fills holes, recalculates normals, triangulates, centres the part, drops it on the bed and exports. - **Orientation is yours.** Studio's auto-orient is off, so what you model is what prints. `examples/nameplate.py` is the worked reference. `references/modelling.md` has the bpy recipes, the gotchas that cost an iteration, and the move each check asks for. ## 4. Run the loop until it goes green ```bash print3d make "<prompt>" ``` Models, DFM-checks, slices with the pinned X2D presets, and reports. The run is **red** when `severity` is `error` — exit code 1, `status: needs_work`. While red: read `advice`, apply the `fix` each note carries to `model.py`, run again. Each note is phrased as a change to the model, because that is where the fix lives. `jobs/<slug>/history.jsonl` accumulates what each iteration changed. Hand over only once it is green. ## 5. Look at the plate Read the PNG at `plate_png` (each `plates[].png` for several plates), and each `likeness[].overlay` when there is one. The numbers go green on parts that are printable and still wrong — mirrored text, a hole in the wrong face, letters too shallow to read. Look before you hand it over. `viewer` is `jobs/<slug>/view.html`: the model in 3D, to rotate, zoom, hide parts and pull them apart. When you have a preview pane (Hermes desktop's `desktop_preview`, action `open`, with that path as the url), open it there so the user can turn the part around beside the chat. Otherwise give the path to open in a browser. `print3d view <slug>` rebuilds it for an older job. ## 6. Hand off ```bash print3d handoff <slug> ``` writes `jobs/<slug>/handoff/`: a print sheet the user can send on, renders of the part assembled (and exploded, for several parts), the `.3mf` and an STL per part. Look at the renders: a colour that does not show, or a part in the wrong place, is plain there. Report time, grams and layers, and for several parts the colours and how each declared fit measured. From a photo, also list which dimensions were measured, given, listed or assumed, and the unknowns. From a listing, put the grams and time beside the listing's price. Then give the path: ``` jobs/<slug>/slice/<slug>.3mf ``` That is the project file. The `.gcode.3mf` beside it is a sliced job and Studio's Prepare tab rejects it as having no geometry. Tell the user to open the `.3mf`, check the preview, and print from Studio — and offer another iteration if the preview is not what they wanted. ## Done when `print3d make` exits 0, no note is at `error`, you have looked at the plate PNGs, any likeness overlays and the hand-off renders, and the user has the `.3mf` path and the print sheet. ## The machine X2D, 0.4 mm nozzle, 256 × 256 × 260 mm bed, 0.20 mm layers, Bambu PLA Basic, textured PEI plate. **The pinned process has supports off** — that is why an overhang note is a real defect and not a setting to flip. Two nozzles: two colours print without a filament change.